This was the deadliest year on record for maritime movements in South and South East Asia, and thousands of people continue to make the dangerous journeys in 2026, the UN said on Friday. Speaking to reporters in Geneva, the UNHCR’s spokesperson, Babar Baloch, described the area as an “unmarked graveyard for thousands of desperate Rohingya refugees”, noting that some 5,000 are thought to have drowned at sea over the last decade.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees began fleeing Myanmar in 2017 amid an ethnic cleansing campaign. They largely settled in refugee camps in Bangladesh, which continues to give refuge to those fleeing today.